In June of 1949, George Orwell (1903 – 1950), a British author, published his soon to become classic, Nineteen Eighty Four (sometimes ‘1984’). The novel described a totalitarian future where the population has been brainwashed into obedience to Big Brother. Control is maintained and perpetuated through the Thought Police, the Ministry of Truth, and with “doublethink” language and slogans: “war is peace,” “freedom is slavery,” and “Ignorance is strength.” The resulting future bears remarkable prescient resonance to communist Eastern Europe of the Cold War. And to developments in America and elsewhere today.
Here are ten characteristics from the dystopian future described in Nineteen Eighty Four:
- The worship of God is replaced by worship of the state. By government as God.
- Basic facts are rewritten as tools of oppression.
- Virtues are erased, replaced by new language.
- The family is replaced by the state.
- History is canceled and rewritten to benefit the state.
- Technology supplants the rule of law to advance political purposes.
- Technology is leveraged to savage anyone who challenges the system.
- Your screens and Alexa know what you are doing.
- Cities collapse into chaos while the elite rule amid detached grandeur.
- Big brother is watching.
Sadly, much of today’s truth is stranger than fiction. See here.
The Truth And Evil Series ©